Death Eaters
Death Eaters are followers of Lord Voldemort. Usually, they wear black hoods with snake-like eye slits to cover their faces. Every Death Eater has a Dark Mark burned into his or her left forearm. When Voldemort touches one of them, every Death Eater feels it, and Apparates to their leader's side. Ideology Ideologically, the Death Eaters seek to destroy wizarding families of Muggle lineage, and gain complete power and control over the entire wizarding world, and restore the magical community to the pure-bloods. The Death Eaters are supporters of pure-blood heritage, or wizards who have no Muggle ancestors (ironic, as their leader, Lord Voldemort, is a half-blood who has a Muggle father). It is unlikely that all of them are pure-bloods, as very few pure-bloods still exist; it is noted that possibly many of them are half-bloods clinging to their pure-blood ancestors. One such appears to be Severus Snape: a half-blood, Snape called himself (although few knew it) 'The Half Blood Prince' while at school, a reference to his mother's wizarding family, the Princes. The Death Eaters have also attacked purebloods who oppose them: for example, the Prewett brothers, who were Purebloods, but members of the Order of the Phoenix. It is thought that their main targets are muggle-borns. History Origin and First war ]] By 1970, the Death Eaters were formed from people Tom Riddle (now Voldemort) knew from his time at school; it was at this time that Riddle had proclaimed himself the new Dark Lord. With this dark army and his horcruxes to back him up, he planned to overthrow the Ministry of Magic. Attacks on select wizards and witches, though also a large number of Muggles, were initiated by the Death Eaters. When the Ministry showed it would not fall easily to insurrection, Death Eaters attacked the prominent wizarding families. As a result fear gripped the Wizarding community. This reign of terror lasted until ending abruptly in 1981. Between The wars When Lord Voldemort was vanquished after failing to kill Harry Potter, the Death Eaters largely disbanded. The Ministry rounded many of them up and imprisoned them in Azkaban, but some eluded justice by claiming they were bewitched, like Lucius Malfoy, or by turning in other Death Eaters, as Igor Karkaroff did. thumb|200px|right|masked death eater However they soon returned to their old ways and after the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup ended, attacked the camp of Wizards and Witches attending, even going so far as to attack the only nearby Muggles around. Voldemort's Return As Lord Voldemort regained a full-strength corporeal existence, he summoned his followers to him by touching Peter Pettigrew's Dark Mark. Some who had betrayed him are too afraid to return to him, and others are dead or imprisoned, but many ended up returning to Lord Voldemort's service as he began his second attempt to claim power. The Minister for Magic (Cornelius Fudge) and most of the Ministry of Magic originally refuse to believe that Lord Voldemort has returned. Though Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore serve as dissenting voices, the majority of the public chooses to believe the Ministry's position. This gives the Death Eaters an advantage, and for much of 1995, the group keeps a low profile in order to maintain their secrecy. Because of the Ministry's refusal to remove the Dementors from Azkaban, which Dumbledore advised immediately following Voldemort's return, the Death Eaters are able to recruit the Dementors to their cause and make similar progress with the giants; the quiet revolt of the Dementors also allowed the Death Eaters to bolster their ranks by allowing the mass breakout of several surviving imprisoned members. Voldemort sends a group of 12 Death Eaters, led by Lucius Malfoy, secretly into the Department of Mysteries, where he expects them to secure for him a Prophecy Record. This Prophecy is of vital importance to him: having originally attacked Harry Potter based upon a partial recounting of it, he now wants to hear the full version in order to learn fully of the connection between Potter and himself. The raid on the Department fails however: Potter and his friends delay the Death Eaters and keep the Prophecy out of their hands, finally destroying it, and are eventually aided by Albus Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore captures 11 of the 12 Death Eaters, puts Voldemort and the only escaping Death Eater (Bellatrix Lestrange) to flight, and summons Ministry officials, including the Minister for Magic, who arrives in time to witness Voldemort. The raid is thus a profound failure for the Death Eaters: their reactivation is no longer a secret, and Lucius Malfoy, who had been important both in the Death Eaters and in the Ministry, has been captured and discredited. However, the Death Eaters proceed to make the most of their move into open action: they resume the lifestyle and behaviour that they were forced to abandon at Voldemort's fall, assassinating and kidnapping important wizards, killing Muggles, and spreading general terror and chaos. They then participated at the battle of Hogwarts. List of Death Eaters See List of Death Eaters *